Start a blog that is profitable in South Africa

Blogs are alive, well and thriving in South Africa. What is common is company or product showcasing websites and again, there is nothing wrong with that. This was me just answering your most burning question if it was profitable to start a blog in 2024 for the South African region. The simple answer is yes, start a blog in South Africa about anything and you will get visitors to your website.

The fact that South Africa is in a third world country, is something I see as an advantage. You see, bloggers from the US/UK have been blogging for a long time and it makes sense that the market is saturated. However, even with that sentiment, that market is still blogging their little hearts away. Now, with being in a third world, it just means that more people are starting to have access to the internet now and more resources to build our own websites is beginning to be accessible. This simply means, more visitors to your website, and people are only starting to discover blogs!

10 Easy Steps To Start A Blog on Your Own

I will be honest and say I wish I could pay someone to start this very blog for me. However, website designers cost money and for something I was starting and not sure if my hobby could make me money, I tried as best as I could to start my blog as cost free as possible. Which means, apart from the hosting, the website was a DIY from me. If you are looking for that tutorial, you have come to the correct place. These are the 10 steps I took to create my website for free in South Africa!

Step 1: Decide what you want to blog about

I believe in niching down when it comes to content creation. This simply means what topic do you want to blog about, write about, or talk about. Now, there are loads of sub categories within each niche but they all stem from the same tree. The reason for niching down is that you become an authoritative voice in that area. Ideally, you would want your website to be a wealth of knowledge or the “go-to” source regarding a particular subject. This goes without saying, select a topic you enjoy and that will take you a while to get tired of. (My blog is an HR / Work Resource.) I am an HR professional doing executive placements for 9 years. I could never get tired of this topic. I live for it. Trust me when I say, each niche has its own tribe, your people will find you.

A list of popular categories or niches in South Africa are:

Truly, the list goes on regarding what you can talk about. If you are a student and have never worked before, there are loads of prospective students who want to get into your course. Blog your way through college. The content you can write about, is just a lot. Please note, if you want more than one niche, select at most 3 categories so that you are not overwhelmed.

Step 2: Name your blog

This sounds like an easy one but I found it the most challenging part of my blogging journey. This is because once you select a blog name, you cannot change it. (I guess you could but all your SEO goes down the drain—rebranding, etc. It’s a whole thing. The long and short is, you can select what ever name you want. I will say this though, picking a niche that boxes you in might not be wise for when you decide to pivot niches. An example is if I named this blog, “Lynn Loves Cooking” – because I do post lunchbox for work blogs at times. It would be weird for someone looking for a job to connect. Personally, I settled on my name, but this is a personal choice. If I curious, I selected my blog to have my name so that it would be easier to market across my social media platforms.

Step 3: Create Your Blog

Now is the time to create your blog. Before I explain this part, let me define a few terms that you will need to know.

Your blog will run on WordPress, which is a FREE platform. In terms of hosting, there are multiple hosting companies you can go for such as Hostinger, GoDaddy, Siteground. However, I started my site with Bluehost and I am still using bluehost. It was the most affordable company and their customer service is amazing. I have messed up my website numerous times and they have gotten it back

Starting your blog with Bluehost means you have complete freedom of your website and it isn’t all stuck on WordPress.com. The best part is, you can get a FREE DOMAIN from bluehost.

Get website hosting + FREE Domain using my link HERE R650 hosting for ONE year

Step 4: Install Your Blog Theme

Blog themes are exciting to me. Its basically how your frontend will look. When people visit your website, what “does your website look like”. I will say, when I started out, I went for a FREE Astra Theme. You can find a free theme from Astra HERE . Please note that my current theme is custom, and I did pay quite a bit of money for it. I would say, start with the free versions and upgrade to fancier themes when you start to make money from your website.

Step 5: Branding

I will say, though, that steps 4& 5 go hand in hand. When you decide on your theme, you should have your branding colors and logo already selected. I would not stress about this, though. In my personal experience, your logo and branding can be developed as you go along. Two years later, I do not have an exact logo or branding colors. I did my logo for free on Canva, and my brand colors used to be green, white, and black, but I recently fell in love with the moody colors on my website. I might stick to them as they are unique and feminine, but do not leave my mail audience overpowered. (The colors came with the theme, which I changed from an original powder pink.) The point, do not spend hours trying to decide on colors and brand colors. You can always return to it. It is an easy fix when you are starting out.

Step 6: Legalize Your Blog

Google needs you to have legal pages on your website. This would be your policies, disclaimers, terms and conditions, about page, and contact page. There are a number of sample that you can use that are free resources on the internet. (Note to self: I will create samples and link them here.) If you are on my site and you see mine, you can use my legal pages, but be sure not to plagiarize, as Google will punish you for plagiarism. (This is done inside WordPress, -under your pages. Simply create a new page).

Step 7: Pages & Category Content

This stage is the content stage. If you do not have money to purchase hosting, you can start writing your articles on a word document. You can then transfer your articles when you have the website up and running. However, Set up all the pages you want to have on your website, as well as the categories as per your niche. You can have a number of sub categories. To give you an idea, under my main page of career posts, I have these categories: labor law, interviews, and courses.

Step 8: Start Posting

I cannot stress this enough, you simply need to post your content. They may not be perfect but that is okay. The great thing about starting small is, you will build your writing style when you are still a small blogger. Come up with a content plan and list of topic ideas. Things such as SEO, ranking, etc can follow once you get your mojo

Step 9: Blog Traffic

Where do you find people to read your blog. In 2024, things have become easier in terms of finding blog traffic with Social Media. Yes, you can pay for ads etc but I prefer the free traffic. (Yes, I bet you can see my love for low costs.). My biggest traffic source is Social Media. YouTube, Tiktok and Pinterest. Youtube is for my most engaged audience, as it is long form and I get to connect with my community. Tiktok is my favorite, though, it’s super easy to go viral on the platform. Although it is hard to grow a brand, it is easy to go viral on TikTok. Lastly, Pinterest is best for lifestyle, cooking bloggers that want to reach a US/UK audience.

Mailing List

I feel I would be remiss if I did not mention having a mailing list. You see, a mailing list I see it as a list of prople who are keen to engage and go the extra mile for your content. However, this is what I can tell you regarding my mailing list, only 10% of it open my mail, and from the 10%, only 6% actually click on my links to read my blogs.

Step 10: How to Make Money

How do you monetize your blog in South Africa? You can make money via 3 main ways in South Africa. I can explain more in another post regarding my blogging income. But these are the ways you can start making money.

1. Running Ads via AdSense

2. Affiliate Marketing

3. Selling Products